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ten short movie reviews.

While cleaning out my purse (lolz, what a joke) I looked through all of the ticket stubs from the movies I went to see last year. I keep them because (in case you didn’t know) I’m a huge bit of a movie geek. And because I’m a movie geek, I decided to do a short review of all of the movies I saw last year. Enjoy.

Unbroken| 12/26/14

I didn’t “technically” see this one in 2015, but it was close enough. I loved this movie so much. It had a zillion of my favorite actors in it, and it introduced me to a few new actors (including Domhnall Gleeson, my current film crush, who is gracing the forefront of the gif above the title of this movie – yes, you’re welcome). In fact, I loved it so much that I wrote a review of it. And if you haven’t seen it yet, seriously, what are you waiting for?!

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies | 1/31/15

This movie was just a big meh for me. I know people who loved it, but most of my friends came back from it very disappointed (as we all were with the second one – minus Ben *wink*). I didn’t even go see it ’til more than a month after it came out because I was so afraid of being disappointed. The movie was okay. I mean, it wrapped everything up, but it just felt like a mess. And the CGI for all of the action scenes? No. The only thing that redeemed it was because it had some of my favorite actors in it (and the fact that Martin Freeman is just the perfect Bilbo) and it was decent enough to watch. I don’t know how many times I’ll be watching it in the future, though. IMHO, the Lord of the Rings trilogy was MUCH better, and I’ll be watching that over the Hobbit trilogy in the future. (Extended, of course.)

The Drop Box | 3/3/15

This was probably the only documentary I watched in 2015. (That just goes to show how much interest I have in them. #whoops) It was still fantastic. If you don’t know about it, click here to go to the website. Watch the trailer. It’ll make you cry. I watched the film with some friends (including friends who were adopted), and it made all of us cry because we had such a connection with unwanted children. It was beautiful.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron | 5/7/15

YEAHHHH, BABY. Even though I loved this movie, there were some things in it that I’m still mad about. For instance (and spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it yet), the fact that Joss shot Clintasha out of the water was just unforgiveable. Now Natasha’s with Banner, who totally freaked her out in the first film? Nope. It’s canon, yeah, but I’m not accepting it. Let’s hope the Russo brothers dismiss the whole Brutasha thing in Civil War. (“That was just a phase, Steve. How stupid do you think I am?!”) Also, did Pietro have to die??? He can zip around super fast but not fast enough to evade a series of bullets? SERIOUSLY?! *sigh* I still loved the movie, though.

Tomorrowland | 5/23/15

This one got a bad rap by the critics – but, honestly, never listen to them. They’re the ones who decided that Star Wars was too mainstream to give it many Academy Award Nominations. (Speaking of, who else is mildly perturbed about the all-white Oscar Nominations?) Anyway, I actually really liked this movie. It started out explaining that everyone thinks the world is destined for destruction. And then the bad guy has a super-unsettling speech about how everyone embraces all of the dystopia-craze because they feel like it’s unavoidable. (“You resign yourself to a terrible future because that future doesn’t ask anything of you today.” Gosh, it just gets better. Watch it.) All in all, it’s a little “green,” but it’s definitely worth watching, if only once. (I’ve seen it twice since I saw it in the theater and it impacted me all three times.)

Paper Towns | 7/23/15

Katie and I saw this the night before it officially came out at the special Night on the Towns event (which included a preview of a trailer for another movie, and then a Q&A session with a lot of the actors, cast, and John Green). I really enjoyed that one, probably because it was so close to the book (which I really loved). It was one of those young adult movies you can watch with your girlfriends and feel all warm and fuzzy inside afterwards. (Also, it was totally fun to see it with a bunch of other fangirls. When Ansel Elgort made a cameo appearance, everyone screamed. Including me.)

Ant-Man | 9/7/15

This is another one that I loved, despite what the critics said. I thought it was going to be totally stupid, but it ended up being one of my favorite Marvel movies! So hilarious and so all-around fantastic. Plus, hello, it’s (a slightly older) Paul Rudd from Clueless!!! The girl character (played by Evangeline Lilly, aka Tauriel) was kind of one-dimensional (my pet peeve in movies – girls who are only there because there has to be a girl for the guy protagonist to fall in love with), but she was fine. My favorite character, though (besides Paul Rudd’s Scott Lang), was Luis, played to comedic perfection by Michael Peña. For months afterwards, my siblings and I would refer to something as being “crazy stupid fine.” And it worked. For everything. (Here’s the link to his scenes.) (Fun fact: I still haven’t seen War Room yet because my parents saw that while we watched Ant-Man. Guess that makes me a bad Christian, huh? XD)

The Peanuts Movie | 11/7/15

Oh my gosh, this movieeeee. It was like nostalgia from my childhood coming back and slamming me in the chest. Yes, I cried because, yes, it was beautiful. The movie spanned an entire year, so that gave the filmmakers plenty of time to do nods to the old movies – skating on the lake, Christmas, Schroeder and his piano, Thanksgiving, the Red Baron (IN WWII!), Valentine’s Day. And there was a dance and I was shipping characters all over the place, and it was literally one of the cutest things I watched last year. I saw it with my younger brother and sister, so it was kind of weird that two teenagers and one young adult were sitting in an animated kids’ movie, bawling our eyes out… but we loved it. (And the gif is of Pigpen because he literally cannot be cuter.)

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 | 11/20/15

Saw this the day it came out because of obvious reasons and bawled my eyes out. I was also pretty freaked out by the (many) jumpscares and kept accidentally flinging my arms into the empty seat beside me. (When I saw it again this past Sunday with some friends, I almost jumped into my bff’s brother’s lap. It was embarrassing.) This movie was everything I thought it’d be, and I loved it. Katie came with me, though, and hated it. So that wasn’t fun. : P It wrapped up the series perfectly and I was a very content fangirl. (Now I need to read the books again.)

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens | 12/21/15

SWEET BUTTERED CRUMPETS, THIS MOVIE WAS SO FANTASTIC. I’ve already written a blog post kinda fangirling about, but I’ll do some more here. I was totally blown away by how great it was. I guess my standards were low enough for that to happen, but I honestly didn’t think I’d enjoy it enough once – let alone want to go see it again (which I’m doing later today *party emoji*). It just… gah. It had its faults, yes (like the fact that you lost all fear of Kylo Ren after he took off his helmet and the fact that it seemed like all of the good parts of the original trilogy and barely anything more), but it was still fantastic. I’m really interested in seeing how the whole Kylo/Ren/Finn/Poe thing works out, especially since half the fandom insists that Finn/Poe is a thing. (I ship Reylo, but I think they might end up being cousins… sigh.) We saw this with my cousins, aunt, uncle, grandparents, dad, and my little brother (his first Star Wars movie), and that definitely added to my experience.

I also saw God’s Not Dead 2 last night (my dad got tickets through a pastor thing). I can’t figure out how to share my thoughts on it without spoiling anything (HA), so I’ll wait to post my review (if you guys want it) ’til the day it comes out.

Thoughts? Did you guys see any of these movies? Do you agree or disagree with me? (I typically only go see movies that I know I’m gonna like, which is why it seems like I like every movie I saw in the theater this year… So, yeah.)

PS: My next post is (I think) going to be my big answers post, so make sure your questions are sent in before Sunday and I’ll post my answers sometime next week!

27 thoughts on “ten short movie reviews.”

I commented on this earlier, but it looks like WordPress ate my comment. 😛 So here’s another one!

Only seen one of these movies – Unbroken. Which is AWESOME. And I love, love, LOVE that gif you used. PHILLLLL. ❤ I do want to see some of these, though, particularly Ant-Man, Age of Ultron, The Peanuts Movie, and MJ2 (btw, the dvd release date has been announced – March 22nd!).

All I want to know about GND2 is…did you like it or not? I'm content to wait for the rest of your review, but I just want to know that. 🙂

IT’S REALLY THE ONLY ONE I CARED ABOUT. XD (jk but still) I just ordered the Blu-Ray/DVD/UltraViolet copy today because it was only $10 on Amazon and I want it on my phone so I can watch it constantly. : D PHIL IS THE BEST.

Okay, I don’t have too much time–but I just HAVE to comment and talk about Star Wars 🙂

Great, great movie. I had really high expectations for it AND they were all fulfilled–ALL OF THEM–so I was one happy fangirl 🙂

Hmmmmmmm, I personally didn’t have the same experience with Kylo when he took off his helmet–I mean, yeah, he no longer seemed like “Darth Vader 2.0” but he was still so darn Messed Up In Da Head that he was still frightening. And disgusting. And repulsive. (To me, anyhow.)

You ship Kylo and Rey?????? Okay. I don’t want to be rude, but that . . . is hard to understand. For me. (Of course you can have your opinion. But I absolutely LOATHE Kylo Ren. And I think he’s really ugly. So . . . yeah.)

Also, I am 100% positive that they are cousins. Rey IS Luke’s daughter. I’m totally sure on that one. So no, they’re not going to be a ship. Here’s how it’s going to turn out: She and Kylo are going to have a huge confrontation at the end of the third movie, and she’s going to kill him, but he’s going to turn to the Light Side again right before he dies and it’s going to be really emotional because they ARE cousins, after all. Called it.

Finn/Poe is NOT A THING. I’m sorry. It’s just not.

Oh, yeah–the Oscar nominations ARE really disturbing this year. NO black or Hispanic actors? NONE? REALLY, guys? And choosing all the nominations from a pool of, like, 7 total movies, 2 of which are “Carol” and “The Danish Girl”? And leaving Star Wars out of EVERYTHING except music and special effects? And insisting that “Mad Max: Fury Road” is the greatest thing since sliced bread?

I love that you said you don’t have much time and then BOOM – long comment. You sound EXACTLY like me! XD

YES YES YES. As for Kylo, I still thought he was conflicted, but I pitied him more than anything at that point. (I do that all the time with villains, though, lol.) I either ship Finn/Rey or Kylo/Rey (but Kylo/Rey depends on Kylo being redeemed in the end, which I would LOVE). Haha, guess it’s just a difference of opinion, then, because I think he’s handsome. (Or Adam Driver is, at least.) Yeah, I think they’re cousins, too, which shoots that ship out of the water. : P Whoa, that sounds exactly like Return of the Jedi, so I’m not betting on that happening. I’d like to see Kylo turn to the light side and help defeat Snoke (and then he’ll die in Rey’s arms and it’ll be so sad). I’ve got my money on that happening.

HA. I agree. They can have an epic bromance, but purely platonic. (I think Poe’s gonna end up with a hot alien girl in the end.)

I know! I don’t think it was meant to be discriminatory – maybe it just so happened that all of the noms were white – but they should’ve thought of that. (Not saying they didn’t, though.) Yeah, I didn’t agree with that. I don’t agree with the Academy on most things. (Last year was rubbish.) I really think they just go for the really quirky movies, and the ones that are kind of groundbreakingly-unique. (Like Carol and The Danish Girl were nominated because they were about homosexuals, which is a big deal in our culture right now.) I could go on and on about the Academy Awards, but I won’t. : P

Yep 😉 I think I meant I didn’t have time to comment on ALL the movies, but I wanted to talk about Star Wars anyhow.

Interesting . . . Personally, I only end up pitying the villains very, VERY rarely. Hardly ever . . . unless they strike me as super “pitiable,” if that makes sense 🙂 Like, if they’re mentally ill or something. THEN I do feel sorry for them. But not Kylo Ren. He’s my official “six-fingered man” now. (One of ’em, anyhow . . . 😉 ) I do want him to be redeemed in the end, but I want it only because his parents wanted it–you know what I mean?

Hmmmmmmm. I think Adam Driver COULD be handsome in a different role . . . Like if he played Shang in Mulan, or something. But not here. Here I’m just like, “That character is NOT good-looking. At all.”

Well . . . yeah. There are basically only two real possibilities, the way I see it: Either Kylo will turn back to the Light and help defeat Snoke, and then die; or he will fight Rey, get wounded, turn back to the Light, and then die. HOWEVER. The first option is actually the one that strikes me as most similar to Return of the Jedi, since, in ROTJ, that’s pretty much exactly what happened; Darth Vader turns back to the Light, kills Palpatine (Snoke’s parallel) to save Luke, and then dies from his wounds. Luke DIDN’T actually end up killing his father. So, in order to change things up a bit, I think that for this trilogy, the two family members (Kylo and Rey) ARE actually going to end up facing off and Kylo is going to die as a result. But he’ll turn back to the Light before he does.

Also, I think that Luke is going to be the one to kill Snoke. Because, you know, he didn’t actually kill either of the main villains in the original trilogy–Vader and Palpatine–they ended up killing each other instead. So I think in this movie, he’ll end up as the hero who finally manages to take down Snoke.

I meant Count What’s-his-face from The Princess Bride 🙂 I haven’t seen all of it (yet), but I’ve seen a bunch of Inigo Montoya clips and I WUVS HIM. He’s my baby.

I think we will see them fight again . . . several times 🙂

Yes. I think Luke probably will end up dying when he kills Snoke–I forgot to say that part earlier 🙂 Because, yeah, I mean, that’s what HAPPENS in Star Wars. Heroes eventually die. Like Obi-Wan and Yoda . . . *sniffle*

I still haven’t seen Ant-Man, so that needs to go on our list of movies to watch. My parents aren’t really into superhero movies, so yeah…..
BOTFA is IMO, really good; at least the extended is. We finished it last night and Randi and I were a MESS. No joke, we were holding onto each other throughout the battle scenes. Dropbox- I don’t usually watch documentaries, but I loved this one. He is such a hero in my book. The director’s story is pretty cool, too.
Age of Ultron – Still trying to figure out why some people didn’t like it and walked out of the theater in the middle. I loved it! Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are two of my favorite Avengers.
The Peanuts Movie is such a blast from my childhood. Mom and Dad took the whole family to see it. Sam, Randi, and I sat there grinning like fools the whole time!
Mockingjay 2 was SO GOOD!!!! Randi and I came out emotionally drained afterwards. So many feels!!!!

ANT MAN WAS SO MUCH BETTER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE. I recently watched it on DVD and it was totally hilarious. (I also watched it on Clearplay, and I have to say I probably wouldn’t have liked it as much without it) I admit I thought it would be kind of stupid and ridiculous when I first heard about it, but I guess Marvel knew what they were doing 😉 And Luis was hysterical! Most of my favorite scenes involved him.

Another of this years surprises was Tomorrowland, a last resort movie that I ended up really enjoying…and yes, that speech hit me hard, because it is so true.

I was *slightly* disappointed with Unbroken, though, simply because it just didn’t feel as impactful/emotional as the book did.

I enjoyed Battle of the Five Armies and Age of Ultron despite their flaws, but I just realized I still haven’t seen Mockingjay Part 2….I’ll have to fix that soon 😉

RIGHT?! It was fantastic! (And it did have some language in it, which I was surprised about, but it was still fantastic.) I know! I had the same exact thoughts. It looked lame, but it was Marvel, so of course I’d see it. YES.

Same! I loved Tomorrowland, and was really bummed when my friends didn’t like it. Oh, well.

I thought that, too. I still loved it, and it was great for my parents (who aren’t big readers) to watch it.